We Dig the Castle 2017

17 July - 18 August

Welcome to our dig diaryMany of the entries and photos on this page have been created by our Explainer volunteers, who are sharing their passion for the history of Nottingham Castle with trainees and visitors

Notes from Explainer volunteer Roger
The weather at the start was very pleasant. Rain was forecast at 2pm but it did not materialise.
I got in using my bus pass and arrived about 10, but one visitor was already there! Fortunately Alison was already holding forth and so I listened intently to catch up on anything new.
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The rest of the day was just nicely busy. It went by really easily. There were quite a few visitors; many from abroad; I remember one delightful party from Texas. There were also parties from Italy and Australia. I wanted to take pictures but the official camera said 'CF Full'. It only had 2 pictures on it but it would not co-operate. Alison stepped in with her phone but we did not take so many as last time. I think Alison did a lot of video on the official movie camera. I was glad as I had enough to do. I did not feel like making the effort to get co-operation from the equipment as I had only travelled from Scotland yesterday. Alison also set up a very satisfactory 'finds table' which helped inform and entertain the visitors enormously.

At the end of the day Alison and her manager [Dr David Knight, Head of Research at Trent & Peak Archaeology] were complementary about my contribution and said I could drop in next week and be welcome. I may well do just that assuming my energy levels are restored. Alison said she learnt stuff from my presentation which I severely doubt as she has a first in history.

At the end of the day they all withdrew to the 'Trip' but I deferred as I could not have improved on a perfect day and would only have bored people with unlikely theories.
​Roger Clifford, Explainer volunteer and NCMG volunteer ​

A postscript from Alison

It's been another good day, and, surprisingly, very sunny!

Trainees have been working on the infilled features in the main (western) part of the trench, excavating, cleaning and recording these. The soil at the immediate west of the brick surface is being taken down, and work continues to clean and record the bricks. The team also processed environmental samples with Rosie and carried out surveying with Norma (both from Trent & Peak Archaeology). ​

It's also been a busy day in the viewing platform and Explainer volunteer Roger and I were on the go all day. We spoke with a lot of local families but also visitors from as far away as Australia, Germany, America and India. It was great to also be visited by the Teen Twitter Takeover team - a group of young people who are running the Nottingham Castle Bid Twitter feed today.

Other visitors to the site included Ron Inglis, Service Manager for NCMG, and the ever-exuberant Richard, a tour guide at the Castle. We also welcomed two groups from the Thoroton Society, with one member offering an intriguing suggestion as to what our features in the west of the trench might be. More news on that coming soon!

The day finished with the regular Friday pub visit and a goodbye to some of the trainees who are leaving us.